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Well that was a long swim!

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plummet
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Well that was a long swim!

Postby plummet » Thu Oct 02, 2014 7:00 pm

Ahhh,,,

Was kiting in cross off conditions and a wicked wave location. Yeah I know cross is a tad silly.
Then a line breaks. It just so happens to be my flag out line!
I try for a few minutes to flag the kite manually by pulling in one of the steering lines. But there's too much power.

So I ditch the kite and start the long swim in. I'm only 300m or so out but man it takes ages and ages to get in. Maybe 30-40 minutes. Thing is when your swimming in swell the land looks about the same distance away for a long time. It plays tricks on your mind. Am I getting any closer?

Finally I get in after an age of swimming.

Morrell of the story? no matter how many years yourve been kiting you can still get a the opportunity to swim every now and then.

PS The wind switch from cross off to cross on and my kite washed in through boulders and onto rocks. It survived only a small tear.

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edt
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Re: Well that was a long swim!

Postby edt » Thu Oct 02, 2014 7:17 pm

Swimming is good exercise :-)

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Re: Well that was a long swim!

Postby matth » Thu Oct 02, 2014 7:19 pm

Did it feel anything like this?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFufoOgCMW8

plummet
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Re: Well that was a long swim!

Postby plummet » Thu Oct 02, 2014 7:44 pm

matth wrote:Did it feel anything like this?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFufoOgCMW8
exactly like that but longer!

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SLiiCK
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Re: Well that was a long swim!

Postby SLiiCK » Thu Oct 02, 2014 10:52 pm

Know the feeling had the same happen to one of my lines not the flag out thankfully,the swim is a killer and as you said it takes forever and the beach never seems to get closer thank god for the surf breaking quite far out help bring me in.

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Re: Well that was a long swim!

Postby Rotule » Thu Oct 02, 2014 11:32 pm

At least you did not had a kite to drag your swim! would have took 3 X more time :!:

plummet
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Re: Well that was a long swim!

Postby plummet » Thu Oct 02, 2014 11:43 pm

I was out of the surf break for 95% of my swimming....

I would have loved to self rescue with the kite. I could have simply held the tips and it would dragged me in. unfortunately that wasn't an option.

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Re: Well that was a long swim!

Postby FredBGG » Fri Oct 03, 2014 12:55 am

In strong surf do not try to swim straight to the beach.

Swim parallel to the beach until you are out of any ripe tides. Then swim slowly towards the beach.
If you are out of the rip tide you will get in nice and quickly as the water and waves moving towards the beach will do most of the work for you. It should not take 30-40 minutes to swim in 300m.

People have drowned trying to swim in the straight.

When it looked to you that the beach was always the same distance away it was because it was and you were in a moderate riptide.

Whenever I can I will get to some high ground and get a fix on where the rip tides are before going out. From higher up you can even see the moderate riptides by looking at different white cap patterns.

I once rescued a guy who had be swimming a while. HE said he was just fine for about 30 minutes and then all of a sudden lost all his strength and felt done for.

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Re: Well that was a long swim!

Postby matth » Fri Oct 03, 2014 1:12 am

PFD, always for me.

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Kamikuza
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Re: Well that was a long swim!

Postby Kamikuza » Fri Oct 03, 2014 2:57 am

Had to swim in twice in the same week, from just about the same spot, towing in my Speed3 21, when the wind totally died... once swam out to help someone with their kite and race board when the wind died too. Always a lot further than it looks, eh!


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